Our family enjoys celebrating Advent as part of our Christmas tradition. Advent means "coming" or "arrival". The Advent season is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, and of longing. We are preparing our hearts for the arrival of Jesus.
The Advent wreath is a circle that reminds us of God Himself, His eternity and endless mercy has no beginning or end. The green of the wreath reminds us of the hope that we have in God, the hope of newness, of renewal, of eternal life. The candles symbolize the light of God coming into the world through the birth of His son.
Last Sunday marked the first Sunday of Advent. The first candle traditionally represents expectation or hope. At our house, we light the candle and together we read a devotional and pray. We often find activities or crafts for the kids to do to reinforce what we are learning. This is a great way for our kids to be involved in learning about the true meaning of Christmas and what it means in our lives as Christians. This year, our wonderful preschool pastor at our church created special advent kits for the families. The girls got to make their own kid-friendly advent wreath.
Each Sunday until Christmas Eve, we will light another candle. The third candle traditionally represents "joy" and is normally a pink candle. *A little note about my wreath... three candles SHOULD be purple because it is the color of penitence and fasting as well as the color of royalty to welcome the Advent of the King. Unfortunately when I went to purchase my candles, Hobby Lobby had only one purple candle left so I did it the opposite. Next year I will shop earlier.
May we all celebrate the light and hope of Jesus' birth this holiday season.
4 comments:
Very nice post! I love that you involve the kids so much. What a great way to help them learn. I will probably steal this idea when I have children of my own.
I grew up lighting the Advent wreath and never REALLY knowing why. Again, great idea!
Now I need to go buy and put together my own wreath :)
I'm really glad that you guys are building a strong family tradition, and thanks for sharing--it's good for people like me who are like, "Huh? Tradition? How do we make one of those?" Our traditions were outside the house--participating in the Living Christmas Tree, etc. But I remember my dad talking about how learning the Stations of the Cross in Catholic school really influenced and increased his knowledge of Easter. So even if I'm attending a church that doesn't celebrate Advent, I think I'll find out about it and participate in the future.
I love it!
I'm so proud of you guys. What a great thing to teach your girls!
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